A method and system for processing high definition video data using remainder bytes is disclosed. In one embodiment, the method includes receiving an information packet having the length of L bytes, wherein L=(M×n×K)+A, and where: M is the depth of an interleaver, n is the number of interleavers, K is an encoding code length and A is the number of remainder bytes with respect to M×n×K bytes, wherein the remainder bytes are located at the end of the information packet, and wherein M×n×K bytes represent M×n codewords. The method further includes converting the A remainder bytes into a plurality of shortened codewords, wherein each of the shortened codewords is shorter in length than each of the M×n codewords. At least one embodiment of the invention provides much lower padding efficiency while improving the decoding performance.